“The [US] nation’s food supply chain is showing signs of strain, as increasing numbers of workers are falling ill with the coronavirus in meat processing plants, warehouses and grocery stores.
“The spread of the virus through the food and grocery industry is expected to cause disruptions in production and distribution of certain products like pork, industry executives, labor unions and analysts have warned in recent days. The issues follow nearly a month of stockpiling of food and other essentials by panicked shoppers that have tested supply networks as never before…
“Even before the illnesses began to spread through the industry, the supply chain had been tested intensely. Truck drivers, who were already scarce before the pandemic, couldn’t make deliveries fast enough. Hot dog factories and dairy farmers ramped up production in response to waves of panic buying.
“Those surges continue to take a toll on a system that had been built largely for customers seeking speed and convenience, not stockpiling…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/business/coronavirus-food-supply.html
“Debt held by the public is on track to exceed the size of the entire U.S. economy this year for the first time since World War II, according to a new analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget…
“…the deficit for fiscal 2020 will exceed $3.8 trillion, more than 2.5 times the record set during the Great Recession.”
As it says:
“Households newly aware that they lack the financial reserves to deal with unforeseen circumstances will increase their precautionary saving and continue to put off buying that new car.
“Firms won’t invest in expanding capacity until they are confident that the virus won’t return. With the developing world entering and exiting the crisis later than the US, exports will be weak.”
“Britain’s financial services sector suffered a drop in profits and a spike in bad debts even before the coronavirus prompted a countrywide lockdown.
“A jump in bad debts could be worrying for banks, which are on the frontline of the Treasury’s coronavirus rescue plans.”
“In recent years, pressure has been building in the UK’s energy sector.
“Many suppliers have adopted a muscular approach to winning new customers: charge as little and scale up as quickly as possible. But this risky strategy has left a number of companies with virtually no safety net…”
“Italy’s companies and small businesses desperately need the 740 billion euros ($807 billion) the government pledged to keep the economy afloat through the pandemic recession.
“By the time the money arrives, it might be too late.”
“Europe is heading for a double-digit slump in the first half of 2020 amid widespread lockdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus, according to economists…
“Another downbeat message is expected later on Tuesday when the International Monetary Fund publishes its latest global outlook. Its Managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, has already set the tone for the forecasts, saying the situation is the worst since the Great Depression almost a century ago.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/europe-economy-slump-more-10-064510349.html
“Russia’s deepening economic crisis is on the verge of spilling into some of the most remittance-dependent economies in the world.
“Migrant workers from the former-Soviet Union send $13 billion home each year from Russia, where they are allowed to work visa-free.”
“China’s foreign trade held up unexpectedly well in March as its factories rushed to fill a backlog of orders, but economists believe the better-than-expected data is a blip as it confronts the bigger long-term challenge of a global recession.”
“The deep global economic downturn adds to the domestic structural challenges facing Japanese banks, such as negative policy rates, intense competition, changing client needs and the ageing and shrinking population.
“Fitch could lower its assessment of the operating environment further…”
“Australia’s third-biggest export industry warns that without robust federal relief, its seismic financial woes will ricochet through other parts of the economy… Australia’s university sector says it faces economic catastrophe and massive job losses unless it receives more help from the government during the coronavirus crisis.
“It is begging the federal government to immediately extend interest-free loans…”
“Goldman Sachs warned that the “historic but insufficient” deal would not go far enough to prevent supplies from overwhelming the world’s oil storage facilities and forcing producers to shut their wells.
“The US bank said oil prices would fall further in the coming weeks because the voluntary production cuts brokered by Opec were “still too little and too late”.”
“After a station in Cleveland, Ohio, sold gas for 94 cents per gallon, a station in Kentucky took the crown with an advertised gas price for 93 cents per gallon, according to Gas Buddy.
“Incredibly, the price at the Cleveland-based station was actually up from March 29, when it sold a gallon of gas for just 89 cents.”
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/gas-prices-average-drop-kentucky-station-us/
“By flattening the curve of financial panic, the central banks of advanced economies have managed to ensure that life under the lockdown is not made even more unbearable by the shutting off of credit to business and households…
“Covid-19 is hitting every part of the world economy. The World Bank is warning of a devastating setback to the economies of Nigeria, Angola and South Africa, along with the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Almost half the countries in the world – more than 90 so far – have been forced to apply to the IMF for financial assistance.
“If flattening the curve in Europe and the US was the battle of March, the next challenge is to reduce the shockwaves radiating out to the rest of the world.”
“Every piece of economic data that we’ve seen in recent weeks has signalled that we are dealing with an economic catastrophe of Great Depression proportions.
“Expect the calls for sovereign debt forgiveness to only grow louder.”
“I increasingly think that the best hope now is for a one-off debt jubilee (where in effect, we just cancel everyone’s debt). It sounds radical (it is, but less so than you might think) but you reset the system once, then return to the old rules.
“Resources are drawn to the people who make the best use of them for the public good, and we all benefit as a result.”
“In the leveraged loan market, it isn’t a question of if the downgrades and defaults will start in a recession, it’s only a question of when and how bad it will be.
“We’re concerned that the answers to these questions are soon and very.”
https://www.brinknews.com/zombies-fallen-angels-coronavirus-the-next-great-financial-crisis-recession-corporate-debt-bonds/
“…current projections still underestimate the severity of the virus-driven shutdown of the global economy, an inherently messy restart process, and consequent changes to the post-crisis landscape.”
https://www.ft.com/content/acc0414e-527c-43e2-826b-c87ab1fa5f79
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